Feverishly, Victor pressed buttons as he looked at the mechanics and remembered the omnic machinery he had tinkered with throughout his adventure. Typing in the final sequence, he wasn’t sure if he did something, but according to the wiring that he had taken a look at under the panel it should have done something.

Blinking, the terminal flashed white and then went back to a screen of unlit glass, black once more.

From behind him, just as he gave up all hope, a calm voice resonated.

“You did well, young scholar. Let me handle the failure from here.”

“You.” Snarled ferrimus.

“Yes, me”, said the mysterious man.

Looking at him carefully, Victor saw garb that was like no other he had ever known. Various plates of strange metal formed a set of light armor over various areas, with a dark cloak accenting the outfit. It was made of neither wood nor stone or any other material that he had seen, and the strange glassy gauges on the back of the man’s boots blinked various colors with every footstep.

Again, Ferrimus dashed faster than Victor could see, but this time he froze. The armored figure growled in a distorted voice as an odd screen on the savior’s arm flashed with various characters.

“You cannot stop us. We will complete ourselves once more, and there is nothing that can be done to halt the ritual. Not even you, Ket.”, said the shadowy cloaked Abyss Lord.

Victor blanched. This strange man was the legendary sage of the omnic empire? The master of the libraries and one of the three most loyal servants of the Radiant King himself was alive?

“That’s where you are wrong. I can’t defeat you, but what I can do is buy us a little more time. Remember how you pulled everyone here in a subspace? You better enjoy spending half a decade in this barren hellhole, because I’m using everything I’ve got to seal you in here.”

The golden statue hummed in a manner reminiscent of laughing.

“We both know that stranding us here would require you to fight us until your last breath. You would be killing yourself trying to throw everything you had just to distract us ”, he taunted.

“Well, yeah. But if that’s what I need to buy this world five years to prepare itself against your kind, that’s just another price to pay.”

Bundo sat up again. “Sir! Doing that would leave this crew stuck in this place! Don’t do this!”, the diminutive elf said.

As the shadowy figure leaped towards the legendary sage, he nodded at the crew.

“Goodbye. I hope that by the time these things have killed me, you’re ready to finish what I’m starting. Train hard, and may luck be on your side.”

With those last words, everything flashed white as four scraps of metal flew out towards the crew and flung them to places unknown.

***

As this happened, the castle broke free from the fleshy constraints before exploding, leaving only the living island and an abandoned ship on the banks of the foggy sea.

On it, a small cat woke up and picked up three kittens by their metallic scruffs before hopping ashore.

For some reason, Fluffy felt like he had some work to do for the next couple of years.

Stretching, the small feline stretched out as strange appendages erupted from his back and his size quadrupled. Striding towards an eyeball covered beast dripping with viscera, Fluffy yowled in anger.